I agree the your statement. Fiji has been hazing their pledges for years. My son was a pledge in 2001. He won't even tell me all the things the guys had to do if they wanted to be part of the house. The things I do know are totally stupid and ridiculous!! This frat should be on permanent suspension. I'm just sayin. Last Friday, my daughter was at the party at the Fiji house. There were security guards checking id's. Girls got in free and the guys were charged $20 a piece. As usual, there was plenty of beer. My daughter had already left when the terrible incident occurred.

"But, you can't hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few sick, perverted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn't we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn't this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, Greg ... isn't this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do what you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America!"

I think any experienced interviewer would know enough based upon a first impression when the person comes in to apply, how they present themselves, how often they call back and how genuinely interested in the job they appear to be. Obviously onceagain is educated enough to understand that most major sororities and fraternities do supply past exams / other material considered cheating by university standards. Having a pretetious attitude doesn't exactly help, either. The majority, and I am not saying ALL of them, but most fraternity/sorority members do not exactly showcase a range of abilities, intellect, individuality, understanding of life and empathy for others. Believe it or not these things do help you get places in life.

haha, these comments remind me of the movie Accepted, where he starts going into how a fraternity is a brotherhood and a legacy that will live on for the rest of your life! Funny thing is he quits that frat because just like most frats, the hazing, degrading, and flat out stupidity of the system isn't worth it. I personally never wanted to be in one, because if I wanted to get bossed around and treated like an animal id join the army. On the other hand how could I resist polo's, extra short shorts, backwards non fitted caps that cover up only the hair-line and the ungodly overuse of the word "Bra?" (aka bro for normal people, though still not used nearly as much) I mean who wouldn't want that?

Confrontation, im not sure repeating yourself works. However, you are more than proving his point. What makes you so sure he actually wanted to be in a frat? Why are you so defensive? If the stereotypes aren't true, then prove it! I go to class monday-friday and wait for the bus a collection of about 30 minutes a day, and I like to play a game called "Keep The Greek" its a very interesting game where I watch people walk by and pick whether a person is in a frat/sorority, and you know what the sad thing is.... 99% of the time im right. I guess its not stereotyping when you know the norm!

I am not Greek, while represented, they don't hold the franchise on high risk behavior.

April 24, 2009
University mourns death of KU student; police investigation under way
LAWRENCE — University of Kansas police have identified the young man found dead on campus this morning as honors student Dalton Eli Hawkins, 18, a freshman from Shawnee.

March 10, 2009, 12:00 a.m. Updated March 10, 2009, 11:43 a.m.
The father of a Kansas University freshman who was found dead Sunday at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house says alcohol is to blame

Thursday, October 2, 2008 KU student killed in single-vehicle accident Car crash takes life of KU student Lawrence — University of Kansas student Neil Hockenbarger, 26, was killed in a single-vehicle accident early Thursday morning, at the intersection of Michigan Street and Sunchase Drive, north of the Kansas Turnpike in Lawrence, police said. Hockenbarger was an active duty soldier and taking classes through a program with the KU Air Force ROTC unit.

Nov. 12, 2007
Chancellor issues statement of death of KU student Aaron Caldwell
LAWRENCE — University of Kansas Chancellor Robert Hemenway issued the following statement today after the death of KU student Aaron Caldwell. Caldwell, a senior in economics from Bedford, Texas, was found dead in his off-campus apartment Nov. 11.

"KU Fraternity Member Injured In Fall" go ahead and youtube this one, then add it to your list. thats about all the research i'm willing to do. man, being sick and stuck at home sure is productive [/not]

one action? where have you been the past couple of years? this is the second time a frat has had a bad spotlight shined on it just this semester, and were not even a full 2 months in yet. this might not be hazing but I know a frat that got closed down due to hazing here a few years ago. this should probably be looked at the same way. alas they'll probably do some kind of deal that tries to cover up this whole ordeal, maybe another class dedicated to why you should drink responsibly, then go out and get beligerently drunk afterwards. oh, hypocrisy at its finest hour!

Trolling at it's finest. The story again here is the amount of incidents that happen to KU students as a whole receive half the publicity as one that takes place within a fraternity. I go to both Greek and non-Greek bars/parties around Lawrence and the behavior seen at each event is blatantly identical. Beer games, hard alcohol, and loud music seem to resonate throughout all of the student body based parties. People being extremely inebriated and not thinking isn't segregated to only the Greek system. Get off your high horse and show some compassion for this kid and his family.

This is one more tragedy as a result of hazing. What people do not understand is that the culture in the fraternity beats these freshman down, just when they are most vulnerable. Day after day they are sleep deprived and mentally and sometimes physically abused by actives. If they don't do what they are told, they are punished and humiliated even more. Sure the kid should have said no to diving in a shallow pool on concrete, but add a little alcohol and he probably thought he would not get hurt if he didn't go straight down. Sure people who were there know what really happened but no one will talk because they are intimidated and most of them at the party are in the Greek system and have been brainwashed that they need to protect it. Many frats have been cleaned up, but this sure is not one of them. How many deaths or near-fatal accidents will it take?

How was this hazing? You have no proof of that. We don't even know if alcohol was involved. They build those pools every year for their annual Fiji ilander party. I'm sure they were working on the pool and horsing around, maybe drinking, but we have no proof.

I'm a vendor to greeks and college campuses all over the country. It's not the greeks that are to blame, it's the few idiot members that are jerks. They are usually bullies and have to put others down to make themselves feel big. I've seen it in dorms, football teams, and elementary school playgrounds. It is a crime to haze. However to condemn a whole system for the actions of a few is not right.

I've worked with great fraternities, great members in those organizations. I've also worked with firemen and doctors that were huge jerks and treated junior firemen, women and nurses terribly. I don't condemn hospitals and firehouses.

The Greek system will not survive unless they begin to show that they can improve safety.

Safety will not improve until/unless there are some fundamental changes to how fraternities function.

The answer: Universities need to impose a requirement that these houses be supervised by university personnel. I'm talking about professional chaperones, seven days a week. These boys are only adults in the legal sense. They repeatedly demonstrate that they are not able to self-supervise. I'm sure many Greeks reading this will argue against what I've written, but here's a hard truth: In the 25+ years I've lived in Lawrence, the number of frats has been cut in two. The entire length of Stewart Avenue, both sides of the street, was nothing but Greek houses just 20 years ago. Now I think there is ONE sorority on Stewart Ave. In 25 more years, there won't be one frat left on this campus. These boys don't have the ability to reign in their testosterone and they don't have enough knowledge of the history of Greeks on campus to see the trend.

@Hedley L.: Review the record. There are probably close to 3,000 students in KU housing. How many of them died last year due to booze? The frats really DO have a unique problem: Their 1960s culture doesn't fly when the drinking age is now 21. Do the math. The decline of Greek houses on our campus started shortly after the changing of the drinking age. These immature boys drink, they die, they get put on double-secret probation and then no one wants to pledge that frat because they are the one frat that cannot have parties. In three years, the frat is gone. Then another frat does the same thing. This pattern has been going on since the late 80s. These "boys" need supervision.

"The answer: Universities need to impose a requirement that these houses be supervised by university personnel."
Better answer -- The university needs to get out of the business of monitoring greek houses altogether.

I may not be able to prove this was hazing but I saw it first hand the first day of classes, when my psych teacher made it known nobody gets up and walks out of his class during the lecture. Then a single guy surrounded by about 6-7 other frat "brothers" gets up and starts walking down the staircase, and when yelled at by the professor finally stops after making it down the stairs. When told to sit down he stood there, and only finally went and sat back down when one of his frat "brothers" told him to, while they were all giggling like school boys. He's lucky theres a 1000 students in that class or he would have been singled out real quick, and probably bee told to drop the class thanks to his "brothers" need for hazing...

I used to work in an emergency services job, and we didn't consider the semester to be off to a real start until the first traumatic student head injury.

I don't know what they call them now, but we used to call it the "KU Roof Diving" competition.

And it's true that fraternitiy boys do not have a monopoly on this. Incidents that come to mind: Sorority girl off a ledge while cleaning windows; fraternity boy off a flat fraternity roof (which is gabled now) partying; Corbin resident out a window (lived); frat boy out a window at Corbin one story higher (didn't); Haskell student off about a 16 ft. wall on KU campus; dorm resident (I think) off a schol hall roof, at least a couple dorm residents off the ledge, student rappelling down the stairwell of Art and Design, schol hall resident crushed by a soft drink machine (even though it was the machine that did the falling not the student, we counted it).
These were all accidents. Nobody tries to commit suicide in Kansas by jumping because they think there's nothing high enough to jump from. Not true, as these incidents indicate.

(Standing on the diving board)
"Ladies and gentlemen, can I please hove your attention? I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. And I need all of you to stop what you're doing and listen. Cannonball" (jumps in the pool)

Yes, you could say im a little bitter if your directing this towards me. Fraternities are from what I've experienced personally as a group of "brothers" who think they are above everyone else. One night at Phoggy Dog a party bus full of a frat came through and while I was waiting in line for the bathroom behind about 5 of these guys. Well instead of waiting, they relieved themselves on the wall and in the sink. There was another instance where I went to a frat house to see friends before I had moved here. They told us to go there and we'd be welcomed in with open arms. This was far from the case, I showed up and was questioned for 30 minutes why and who told me to come. After calling my friend and being told he was on his way and to let me in (even though I was related to a legacy of that frat) I was told to leave or there would be consequences. No biggie, the next enlightening time I had around a bunch of frat guys was at a tailgate last year for a game and like most fans while we were walking by we yelled Rock Chalk! Well these guys decided that we said something else so they confronted us, only to walk away due to the realization that these guys were well outnumbered by the group we were with. I have plenty of other stories that have left a bad taste in my mouth, and while yes I realize its not all of them, yet most of them are spoon fed children who can't live without mommy and daddy playing a crutch. It shows in their actions and their attitudes towards others. The sooner they realize this isn't animal house, and even if it was, those guys acted nothing like these modern day guys do, then our campus and town will be better off.

No, not only frat guys do it, but in that instance it was, and I havent seen anyone else do that. Sorry, never been to the replay lounge. Have you ever walked down the street during a tailgate? I'm assuming you have since your name is LarryNative, how often do you hear people scream Rock Chalk while they walk down the street? I did it to a non-frat filled house a block down and they cheered, yet they were doing the same thing as the frat guys... Played out? I think not, do you really think that these kids can really afford the BMW's, Land Rovers, and other cars like these on there own? I have plenty of friends who are in frats, that are good genuine guys. As for bullying people? I'm not sure where you get that, I was simply being a fan, trying to get some team spirit from other fans, there was no bullying involved, unless it was from them. I simply stated that they quickly walked away when they saw the rest of our group was coming. The whole modern day thing is in reguards to the frat in animal house, the only similarity I see between that movie and the frats here, are the alcohol. As for the kid I hope he is alright, and makes a full recovery, but that doesnt change that there are underlying problems in the Greek community around here, and something needs to be done about it.

These comments are sick because it turns a story about a kid getting hurt into a long-running, never-ending debate about greek life. Give it a rest or at least show some respect and start a seperate blog about the perils/thrills of greek life.

Hope this kid is OK and I hope this is the last island party in Lawrence.

a quote from my hometown paper, this wasn't deleted by the powers that be.... "Tragedy? Since when is diving into a pool a tradgedy. More like stupidty. My bet is that alcohol was involved. I have not ever been to a frat party that did not have alochol and lots of stupidity. So does it suck someones family memeber is hurt yes, but the reality is it could have been avoided but wasn't. So he will go into the books as another statistic regardless he pulls through or not."

I just don't understand, like I said on my post that was deleted. I've had numerous tradgedies in my life. My dad lived through a plane crash, because the airport here deamed their plane was safe to fly, after difficulties with icing on the wings. My brother was stillborn because a tumor ripped off his umbillical chord. Both my grandfathers died within the last 8 months. The thing is, some of these could have been prevented, some couldn't. Im not trying to make light of a situation, but seriously, how easily could this have been avoided? That's all it comes down to. What actions are they gonna take to prevent it from happening again? Its time that KU stops making silly rules like you have to take an alcohol awareness class, or after getting in trouble a 2nd time alerting the parents. How about we make all frats/sororitys dry just like dorms. If in trouble the 1st time not only a fine, but put them on probation. If caught again good riddance. theres no time for a 3 strike rule when it comes to things like this. especially when the real 2 faced people are the ones who attend a remembrance of an incident like this and then follow it up with a party later that night. these things should not be offensive, but reality. I mean come on the truth hurts, but you can't sugarcoat reality like this when people are being seriously injured or dying.

Further proof that there is a huge cover up...this party was mysteriously not a "registered event" on the fraternity calendar (investigators said) although the pledges spend nearly a month working on the beach and pools. Further, the pledges know exactly how deep the pools are because they are the ones who build them. Also odd that everyone refuses to comment. And it took days for any story to appear anywhere! Even the Kansan.com has "disappeared" all the comments related to this story. Hope that someone has the guts to speak up for their "bro" to stop this madness. Even if it is just a few bullies, all other members do nothing to prevent it, giving the entire frat a bad name, which is sad.

No comment is what lawyers, and probably even police, inform the students to answer. Students commenting to the media can just get them involved in the situation and cause more harm to an investigation then good. Leave the police work to those who are actually paid to do it and quit worrying so much about the drama that comes from these stories.

Its not hard to find out it was edited, just notice the original article was written on the 19th and published. Then it was "updated" on the 20th. Funny how the Kansan article also states that there were girls at the scene, who went to the neighboring frat after the incedent. Then later on that night they just started carding people, because the police had shown up earlier. this can all be found in the news section of the Kansan website.

Fraternity or not...This guy probably just wanted to do something to show off to his friends trying to do something funny (think jackass the movie) and it went horribly wrong. I sure hope he makes it out ok.

My question is, how big is this man-made lagoon/pool/whatever it is? Could the kid have been thrown in by his buddies and accidentally hit his head that way? Or is the pool too deep for him to hit his head on the bottom by just being tossed in? Just curious. And whether this kid is in a frat or not, I do hope he fully recovers and my thoughts are with his family and friends.

Wow... This story makes me sick to my stomach! This is yet another reason NOT to get involved in the Greek system... Waste of time/money and LIVES!! SO STUPID! Joining a frat/sorority is just another reason to do STUPID things and an excuse to drink your life away. This story is absolutely horrible and is not just the guy's fault! It's the result of multiple people! Those involved should feel awful! I cannot even imagine what he must be going through, or his family!

And some other things that blow my mind.... If this frat has had so many issues... why is it still in existence?? Second... Underage drinking was obviously a factor. Third... Who were the brilliant party planners??, the people on the 'construction crew' that created the 'pool?,' or the people that were conducting the hazing?? Great job guys!! I don't know how you're going to be able to sleep at night.

I work in an ER at a level one trauma center and have seen my share of horrible accidents... I don't think everyone realizes the seriousness of his injuries, whatever they may be. This will have an affect on him the rest of his life. Head/Neck injuries are VERY serious. Injuries to these areas can affect many systems of the body.... the nervous system, vascular, musculoskeletal... It is not a 'speedy' recovery.